After hearing the comfort, Johnson nodded silently, and then asked in a hoarse voice: "By the way, Chief of Staff, did you just say any good news?" ”

He was still very sad in his heart, but as a division commander, the situation at this time did not allow him to be immersed in sadness all the time, and now that the battle in the city was still raging, he had to assume the responsibility of command.

The chief of staff nodded, he did not speak, but directly handed the telegram in his hand to Johnson.

After receiving the telegram, Johnson finally breathed a sigh of relief.

The two regiments of the Australian 26th Division were finally about to arrive, and just half an hour earlier, Johnson had also received an order from the corps command that once the 26th Division arrived, the task of the main attack would be handed over to the 26th Division.

Johnson thought for a moment and gave Butler a new order: "Go and tell the commander of the third company of the guard battalion at once, and his company will immediately march into the city to participate in the battle and stabilize the present front." ”

The 3rd Company of the Guard Battalion was the last reserve in the division, and it had not participated in the fighting in the city of Ejele, and was one of the last remaining troops of the Guard Battalion.

But now the situation is different, the follow-up troops are about to arrive, and it no longer makes sense to keep this reserve, and now is a good time to put this unit into battle.

After all, the two regiments of the 26th Division arrived here in half an hour, but this unit needed a certain amount of time to recover after a rapid march and could not immediately enter the battle.

Therefore, at this time, the 24th Division had to buy time for the friendly forces to rest, so that the 26th Division could have sufficient rest time and be ready to take over from the 24th Division to continue the attack on the French troops in the city area of Égeret.

And if the 24th Division is driven back from the front line by the enemy at this time, then the attack of the Australian 26th Division will definitely be more difficult.

It was with these factors in mind that Johnson finally decided to put the only reserve in his hands into battle.

Butler was very sympathetic to the division commander's decision, and he probably understood why Johnson had made the decision to put the 3rd Company into battle, so he did not object, and immediately went out to find the communications corps to convey Johnson's order.

At this time, the battle in the city of Ejele had also entered the white-hot stage.

Although the French commander suffered a little loss at the beginning of the previous battle, as the battle continued, the French army also discovered the attacking British troops, which were actually not many in terms of strength.

And in some areas, the French army, after losing some troops, was able to force the British attacking troops to retreat, which in the eyes of the French army was a very good signal, a signal of hope for victory!

More than an hour ago, the British army also launched an attack with the last small part of the 3rd Company of the Guard Battalion, so that the French army, which had already begun to squeeze the British attacking troops outward, had to stop the pace of squeezing again.

As the commander of the 3rd French Division, the French division commander was well aware that the British army had put in a lot less troops in the last than the previous ones, indicating that its reserves had been exhausted. Since the reserves of the British army have been exhausted, and the situation of the French army in the city has not deteriorated, the French army can collect the reserves in their hands and prepare to give the British attacking force the final blow, so as to completely squeeze the British attacking force out of the city and crush this British army.

On the other hand, when the Australian commander of the British 26th Division met Johnson at the headquarters of the 24th Division, Johnson had already begun to look visibly emaciated and exhausted.

The battle of Ejelle City caused Johnson to lose a large number of comrades, and even his cousin, and the 24th Division was completely disabled.

Had it not been for the arrival of the 26th Division, Johnson would have ordered the troops to be withdrawn long ago.

Therefore, when the Australian commander of the 26th Division proposed to take over the main attack on the city of Ejele, Johnson had no objection and readily agreed with the other side.

After giving a detailed briefing to the upper echelons of the 26th Division about the situation of the French forces in the city, Johnson asked how long it would take for them to prepare for the attack.

Eventually, they agreed that the troops of the 26th Division would enter the city in half an hour to take over the area that was still in the hands of the 24th Division. All the units of the 24th Division, after handing over their positions to friendly forces, completely withdrew from the city of Ejele and moved to rest.

Soon, the time came for the transfer of positions, and the British soldiers and the Australian soldiers began to transfer positions according to the agreement of the two division commanders.

Johnson finally withdrew all the British units of the 24th Division from the city, and assembled and rested not far from the eastern suburbs, while the units carried out casualty counts.

The number of casualties was quickly reported, and the 24th Division was transferred here with two regiments, plus the engineer battalion and the guard battalion directly under the division, all suffered heavy losses, and the entire division was close to 10,000 when it came here, and the number was sharply reduced to less than 2,000.

In addition, the number of minor and serious injuries also reached more than 1,000.

The field hospital of the 24th Division could not completely treat so many wounded people, and the medical staff of the 26th Australian Division had to be used as a last resort to treat them. This was barely enough to deal with the seriously wounded, who had no medical staff to deal with them, and had to rely on the uninjured soldiers and some hygienists to bandage them.

Of course, due to the desperate fighting of the 24th Division, it also brought very heavy casualties to the French troops defending in the city. The commander of the 3rd Division, who joined the French Army, misjudged the situation and threw all his troops into the battle, only to encounter the new troops of the Australian 26th Division and suffer huge losses.

Edgerle's situation, which seemed to be more and more favorable to the British as Wavell sent the last Australian troops,

Once Wavell conquered the area, the French had no more cities that they could use to block British access to the Algerian border oil fields.

It only takes one step further to penetrate Ejele, and Wavell will have access to the border area oil fields, which account for half of the total number of Algerian oil fields!